RAPTURE (I mean recap)

Max touched base with the stuff we did but I just wanted everyone to see our progress, it may not look like much but it was a lot. We woke up Sunday morning to find that that Rapture had not happened and that we were all alive, score one for us. I really wasn't worried I assure you. I was more worried about the massive rain storm that was supposed to happen later that day with the predicted hail and tornadoes. Temperature highs were supposed to be in the upper 70s so I felt today was the perfect day to tackle our front lawn. You may recall this is what the start of our house looked like with patchy weeds everywhere, a giant Monster plant and mismatched hosta everywhere.

Gross front with Monster plant on left

We started by ripping up and evening out the other side of the house which previously was covered with rocks, miscellaneous weeds and random Hosta that had somehow survived the replacement of the sewage pipe replacement. I saved the Hosta but everything else got ripped out and regraded.

New blank canvas

 There was a little patch of mow-able grass next to the pathway to our front door. I asked Max if he wanted to waste time mowing it or get rid of it and he said get rid of it. So I tore that up to make room for a flower bed.

Bye bye grass patch

The rest of the Monster to be removed

The remains of the Monster

 Th next step was refill the bed on the right side of the house which was now completely bare. I wanted to balance the two sides as best I could knowing that it would take a year or two before they will look the same again. Although I hated that everything was really overgrown, this left me with lots of extra plants for transplanting. Around a mid-lawn rock bed, was a Hosta surround rock that was way overgrown. I decided to split all the Hosta around it to make a walled bed to match the left side of the house.

Me midday breaking Hosta, covered in dirt
and sunburning (I did apply sunblock)

Trying to look cute

Rock bed remains

More remains

Then it was onward to the transplant. I had a ton of plants to make this a success. I even gave a few to our new neighbors who wanted to put some around a tree so they wouldn't have to mow or trim it anymore. Everything looks even and symmetrical now and it was a huge load off my mind. I still have to fill in the white and green ones more in the front but I will probably wait until next year when I can split those up from the other side.

Even Hosta

One project Max left out of his post was that he used random rock from our dirty pile to frame out our drainage pipe. Pretty nice! We have more to do the other side when the water/mud dries up.

Reusable rock

 The final step was to plant some perennial flowers just to spruce it up for summer. First I mixed in an organic potting soil in with the current soil to add some nutrients back and give it that nice deep color. Then I added some white snap dragons across the back of the Hosta for height. I think they will show up really nicely against the brick. In the front, I added pink begonias for height in the front and purple alyssum to fill in and spread over the flower bed. There is still the corner where the Monster stump remains with the two juniper bushes it choked out. I have decided if I'm keeping the bushes yet or not.

Flower bed with bush remains

 That concluded our Sunday's work. This was about 8.5 hours of straight work with the occasional break for water or the random neighbors who stopped by to say hello. We meet six different houses all together. I think they were waiting until we settled in to say hello. Everyone was super friendly and it is reassuring that the neighbors have each other's backs.

The only bad thing of the day was the sunburn I sustained. Battle wound not for the weary. I did apply sunblock but as Max tends to say, I am a member of the "Aryan" race so in other words, effin' pale. I wish I could hop in an assassin wax bath via Angelina Jolie in Wanted and just wake up and be totally healed. Why can't stuff like that happen in real life?

This is the sunburn I sustained, remember I did apply sunblock

 The rain came but not as bad as we were anticipating, other areas got the really bad stuff. Monday night we finished cleaning up and mowing the lawn to give you this final look. I planted some flower pots and a few extra flowers on the right side including some Stock and yellow and purple petunias. Not too shabby huh?

Left side of house

Max smiling at a job almost done

Right side of house

Flower close-up

Planted flowers framing the door